An experienced pilot praised this week for conducting a forced landing in an unpopulated area near Maitland after a plane caught fire remains in a critical condition in a Sydney hospital.
David Jardine suffered burns to about 80 per cent of his body in the crash at Luskintyre on Monday afternoon.
Mr Jardine's friend and CEO of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Australia, Benjamin Morgan, travelled from Sydney to the Hunter on Thursday to speak with Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators and to see the crash site for himself.
Mr Morgan has been spending the past few days with Mr Jardine's family in the Intensive Care Unit at Royal North Shore Hospital.
Mr Morgan told the Herald that Mr Jardine remained in "quite a serious condition".
"The next few days will provide an indication as to what the next few days and weeks will look like," he said.
A fire broke out in the Mooney light aircraft soon after Mr Jardine departed Maitland airfield. He was found near the wreckage in a field near Luskintyre airfield.
